July 21st Stage 18 Pinerolo-Galibier

Having driven back from Pinerolo to Briancon after the start of the race we made it back even before the Caravan hit Briancon again. We watched the caravan come through and then went to our hotel lobby to see what was happening in the race.

We saw Andy make his move on the Izoard and watched the riders summit and then descend Izoard. The base of the mountain is very close to Briancon and knowing that Briancon was positioned (I think) 40k from the finish, we watched on TV until the lead group hit around 45k to go knowing we had time to walk outside and find a spot to watch them come through.

It was going to be a lot different than yesterday which was the group coming through earlier in the stage and up a steep hill. This time it is a flat section where they would fly through.

Maxim Iglinsky is 1st through. It just happened that Astana had their mechanic bus setup on this corner from the previous night. Only one other team was setup here but neat that his team bus is in the background as he leads the race through Briancon solo.


Not far behind is a chase group of 4. Andy Schleck had caught the breakaway group where he had a teammate waiting to deliver him to the base of Galibier. Note the differences in apparent effort between Schleck and his teammate!

Around 2'40" later the chase comes through. Schleck's move has rocked the peleton as he is actually gaining time. He went from 2' up over the Izoard and now at 2'40"
His lead would eventually balloon to 4' before Evans almost singlehandedly brought the final gap down to around 2'



Frank Schleck, staying on Basso's wheel.

The chase group had strung out the peleton. Contador was hurting, unable to stay at the front and came through around 20" down on Evans & Voeckler. Not a good sign. Even watching the Izoard ascent in the hotel I was commenting that he was nowhere near the front of the peleton when Andy made his initial attack. A sign of things to come as he eventually catches up to Evans and Voeckler but then cracks with a few kms to go at the top of the Galibier and loses all hope of winning this year's TDF in the final kms of the Galibier.




More riders coming through.


Cavendish in the Green jersey. He along with the gruppetto would not make the time cut and get penalized 20pts, again putting the chase for the green jersey somewhat in doubt.



Phillipe Gilbert conserving energy on this stage.


Having made the long descent the riders remove the newspapers from their jerseys and chuck them to the ground. The rest of the ride is pretty flat before the road kicks up on the slopes of the Galibier.


The pace of the riders coming through was fantastic - probably between 40 and 50kph. Its a little scary standing there while the officials and team cars as well as motos zoom by at speeds enough to kill you if you get careless. Its important to warn your kids of what to expect and be safe at all times and respect the race and the dangers that are there.